Antonio’s verdict on Brentford: “We have to start from the first second”
Mon 26 December 2022, 16:45|
Tottenham Hotspur
Antonio Conte had mixed emotions after we returned to Premier League action with a 2-2 draw at Brentford on Boxing Day.
On one hand, he was impressed with the desire of the players to recover from 2-0 down to secure a point at the Gtech Community Stadium. Naturally, the other side of that coin will be his inquest into how we found ourselves falling behind for the ninth game in a row, a run stretching back to a defeat at Old Trafford on 19 October.
Vitaly Janelt and Ivan Toney put the hosts in the driving seat, but once Harry Kane powered in a textbook header for 2-1 on 65 minutes, it was one-way traffic. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg levelled it up with a classy finish - his fifth goal of 2022/23 - six minutes later, and it looked all set for another comeback to remember, but Harry struck the crossbar and Heung-Min Son’s late, late effort was turned away by David Raya.
Antonio on setting up for Brentford
“We knew the difficulty to play against Brentford, especially away. This season they have beaten City, United, against Chelsea they drew, and maybe deserved to win. Brentford is a very physical team. If you go to press, and we prepared to press high, and to stay with the (defensive) line very high, then they play a long ball and they are very good on the long balls, set pieces, throw-ins, you have to pay attention. Every time they have the possibility, they play a long ball into the box. This was a game that we prepared for very well but, at the same time, we wanted to start in a different way.”
Antonio on the start/finish
“For me, I think the second part of the game was very, very positive. We played with a great intensity, played with the right desire to score and to create difficulties for our opponent. But we have to know, this is maybe nine games in a row that we start a game and concede a goal. We go down, and then we start to play, and we come back. I think that we have to start from the first second, mentally strong, to play in the way we played in the second part of the game until the end.”
Antonio on ‘being stable’
“I spoke with my players, because now it’s becoming usual, this type of situation. Okay, we were good to come back, also, at the end, I thought we deserved to win the game, but we have to try to improve. It’s important to be stable in every moment of the game, from the start until the end. You know very well the difficulty of this league. At this moment, United, Chelsea and Liverpool stay out of a place in the Champions League. For this reason, we have to continue to improve, to work very hard and put in our mind to go to another level.”
